Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

We started this fund to raise money for the children all around the world who don't have enough to eat and the mothers and carers who have to watch as there children are starving. 

We choose to ask for sponsorship for observation of the month of Ramadan for a quite a few reasons but first a bit of info about who we are. We are Tracy and Marisa Lancaster and we are a married couple from Manchester U.K. We married in 2015 and now live in Greater Manchester with our four cats and who knows hopefully a few human babies in the near future.

So why observe Ramadan why not do a fun run or a cake sale? Are we Muslim? Nope. But what better way than to highlight the issue of starvation than a fast. So why Ramadan in particular we then things gets little more complicated. I suppose one of the main deciding factors were the atrocities in Manchester less than one week ago done in the name of Islam. But was the terrorist a Muslim? Not in my eyes. My personal experience of the Muslim culture and my Muslim friends response to the attack is that man was now more a Muslim than he was a peace keeper. I want to stand with our Muslim friends and neighbors in a time when, one mans actions backed by a tiny minority of sick individuals, has made them a target of hate and abuse. I have witnessed first hand the backlash in Manchester with peaceable innocent people have been bullied harassed and beaten in their own town for something they despise just as much as you or me. So during the holy month of Ramadan we hope to learn more about a religion that is under such scrutiny and experiences a little of what it feels like to be a Muslim in Manchester at this awful time in our history. 

We also want to experience what hunger really is and to use this as a reminder that there are people that experience this around the world indefinitely not just for one month. We want to remember that despite being by no means 'rich' in terms of our bank accounts we are lucky beyond some people's wildest dreams. We have food, shelter, free health care, religious freedom,  education, electricity, clean running water, and most of all each other. 

Ok so that's a little of our thoughts that have brought us to today, but what exactly will we be doing. Well we will be observing a complete fast from the first morning prayer time (suhoor) to iftar which is when the fast is broken with with the fifth prayer (magrib). That means no food, no water or and other drink, no smoking (not a problem for us to be fair), no tablets, no sexual acts,  not even a stick of gum. But contrary to popular belief we can still shower bath or swim. We are not going to pray as we mentioned before we are not Muslim but we are going to take the time out of our day to mindful of how we are feeling and why we are doing what we are doing. We have already learned so much just in preparation for this challenge and we are excited to share our experiences, from what we have learnt to what we are eating and what others have thought of our experiences. All the highs (and possible lows) of a first fast for two average non Muslim in the U.K. All of this will be shared on our Facebook page - https://m.facebook.com/RamadanJourneyUnisef/

Feel free to follow, share, comment or ask questions. It's a learning curve for us and I hope you will find of journey interesting. Hope to hear from you all and thanks for your support.

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